


so i hold you by the jaw

by noirshitsuji



Series: wild hearts [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Has Bad Luck, Adrien Agreste Knows, Adrien Agreste Knows About Marinette's Crush, Adrien Agreste Needs Help, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Finds Out, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has a Crush on Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has a Crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrienette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, And He Knows It, Angst, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting, Gen, Identity Issues, Introspection, Oblivious Marinette Dupain-Cheng, POV Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, enemies au, one-sided Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27675100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirshitsuji/pseuds/noirshitsuji
Summary: and kiss you, to be––but Adrien, for all of his bad luck, has at least a healthy dose of optimism on his side.(He kind of needs it.)A classic Enemies!AU, with a twist.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: wild hearts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023714
Comments: 8
Kudos: 81





	so i hold you by the jaw

Chat Noir raises his chin up at her, trying for haughtiness with his smirk (he doesn’t feel any) as his hands come to rest on the top of his baton. “Getting a bit winded there, bug?” he bites, but it comes out weak; he’s panting himself. He tries desperately not to fold over as she straightens up a little from where she’s standing twenty meters before him. In another beat, her yo-yo is alive again in her hand. It’s a charade he doesn’t need to put up: she’d summoned Lucky Charm already to dispense with the akuma, but Chat hasn’t used Cataclysm in this battle.

(He isn’t planning on it, either, but thanks to his previous track record, the last three weeks of  _ trying  _ not to use it anywhere near her haven’t resulted in any more disappointment in his father’s post-battle lecture than Adrien could handle.)

“I could do this all day,  _ cat, _ ” Ladybug drips venom at her chosen moniker for him, but his smirk only widens.  _ Vincent would be proud, at least,  _ at how easily it comes to him _. _

“Please do,” Chat replies and feels the shaking he’s been desperately trying to suppress for the past few minutes lessen enough to stand tall and lift his baton over his shoulder. “By the look of things, your Miraculous is going to release any minute now, so staying here  _ all day  _ would give me plenty of time to get it.”

“Yes, because you’d have a hard time with me even as a civilian,” she shoots back immediately, and he makes sure he inserts a little bit of poison in his grin, too, though his remark had been a warning more than anything else.  _ It’s been successful in that, at least, _ he thinks as he watches Ladybug’s eyes scan the nearby rooftops, doubtlessly calculating paths for an exit. 

Once Chat sees them light up the way they usually do when she’s found a solution, he charges in headfirst so that he can’t be blamed for not trying to stop her later, and promptly fails as she gracefully flicks her yo-yo to what must be a street lamp to the side and saunters out of reach. She’s already jumping from roof to roof when he turns around after her, and then he just...watches.

(He’s been doing that a lot lately. Good thing his father’s vision could not extend far without the use of butterflies, or that he never bothered to detect the emotions of those he was closest to. It means Chat gets to take the long way home, too.)

* * *

“Good morning, Adrien,” Marinette beams at him, and it’s almost surreal, the difference to the previous day. Adrien can smile back at her now, too, instead of sneer.

“Good morning, Marinette,” he says, her name feeling like honey on his tongue.

Marinette riffles through her bag in that clumsy way of hers Adrien has grown to adore  _ (everything she does is so sincere it hurts but this? he never gets to see her vulnerable when she’s–) _

Finally, she pulls out a small box and opens it, revealing the ring he’d asked her to custom-make. She thrusts it towards him. “Here’s your commission. I hope you like it; I took the liberty of–” she bites her lip and it’s  _ just– _ “of modeling it on my own finger since it’s the same ring size.”

“It’s perfect, Marinette,” Adrien replies, remembering to use the correct pronoun and glance at the ring itself instead of just staring at her. She nods, closing the box and dropping it in his outstretched palm. Their eyes find each other again. They don’t look away.

Adrien thinks he can see Nino watching them with less subtlety than he might imagine he is from the corner of his eye, but for some reason that does the opposite of inspiring his usual restraint. He finds himself wondering like an idle spectator  _ what the hell are you doing  _ as his hand reaches up to Marinette’s face–

–to hold her chin lightly in place with two fingers as he moves to kiss her cheek. 

(Her earrings are a dark red you could mistake for black if there’s no sunlight falling on them, but Adrien already knew that.)

He tries not to pull back too quickly and control his blush. Luckily, his voice comes out steady when he says: “Thank you, Marinette! You’re an amazing friend!” sunniest smile in place even as he can feel Plagg poking a tiny claw into his ankle, asking the same question he’d been asking himself.

Marinette seems more surprised than anything else, cheeks as rosy as the dawn (another claw poke,  _ stop listening in on my thoughts _ ) as an obviously uncontrollable smile-grimace spreads on her face. “S-sure!” 

Then Madame Bustier walks in and Marinette moves to sit in her place behind him with superhuman speed (which had only failed her once, when she’d come out of that alleyway a bit too soon for him not to connect the dots). Adrien glances in Nino’s direction and gives him a smile; the other boy only raises an eyebrow. Adrien shrugs, dropping the box in his bag (and Plagg is biting into the side of his palm,  _ you idiot, what are you doing _ ) and then settling down for class.

His current prospects are that giving her back that ring will stay a pipe-dream, but Adrien, for all of his bad luck, has at least a healthy dose of optimism on his side.

(He kind of needs it.)

**Author's Note:**

> Well. _This_ is what happens when one gets a Mumford and Sons aesthetic into their heads, I guess. It will have several(?) parts, because angst begets angst. Obviously.
> 
> I always appreciate feedback on my fics. Reach out to me on [Tumblr](https://noirshitsuji.tumblr.com/) as well.


End file.
